Katara notes that Suki is good at many things, but cooking isn't one of them, so as much as Katara appreciates having a night off, she'd prefer if Suki left cooking to her in the future. But apparently, Suki's desire to cook was as much on a whim as a result to help out, and Katara wonders if it's from "the land of bad ideas."
Whatever the cause of this idea is, the Gaang has to live with and eat what Suki has made, so Katara cuts up the roast and puts it in the stew, which she believes is the only way of eating it. She also makes a "sauce" that is actually a dessert that she copied from her aunt, the process taking her hours. Even though it tastes like "congealed sadness and boredom," Katara tells everyone to pretend to like it. Toph objects, saying it's not Katara's birthday, but Katara says it's not for her sake, but Suki's. Zuko, being used to eating things he doesn't like in the name of politeness (and, of course, honor), decides to take small bites and swallow them whole. Sokka, however, has no idea of how bad his girlfriend's food will be.
Katara finds Aang, and while he suggests that he'll only eat the vegetables, she tells him that there's no meat in the dessert and he'll have to eat it too, much to his displeasure. Suki thanks Katara for her help, and Katara tells a white lie, saying that she's sure the food will be fine.
While everyone makes awkward faces at the start of the meal, Katara gives them a glare that tells them to keep their feelings to themselves. Sokka makes the mistake of being overly vigorous in his praise of the meal, and Suki offers to cook it for him every day, the obvious downside of false praise.
Katara and Zuko let off steam again, which ends in another tie. While the two are amused over Sokka's predicament, they can tell that he cares for Suki a great deal. Zuko smiles sadly as he thinks love is more difficult than Suki and Sokka make it seem.
Zuko asks Katara a question, which she initially assumes is just being cheeky, but it turns out he wants to know if people can really change. Katara, while taken off guard a moment, decides to answer to the best of her ability.
Of course, Katara's hesitant to answer decisively, saying that whether people can change depends on the person, and often requires a drastic change. But while Katara has changed as a result of her mother's death, Aang has not even after learning of the loss of his people- and Katara hopes he never does. Katara says that's why some people change and others don't.
Zuko says this was brought on by something in his cousin's letter, albeit while not saying more about its contents, and asks if there was a dagger inside as well. Katara says yes, and, on Zuko's request, hands it to him. Zuko is pleased, remembering his uncle telling him that one should always have a dagger on hand, "because you never know," which Katara finds highly reminiscent of Katara's mother telling her to keep her parka nearby. Katara recalls her mother chasing after her with a parka when she forgets it, and wonders if Zuko's uncle did the same with Lu Ten, realizing that in that case, Lu Ten would be right to run from someone chasing him with a knife.
Katara observes firebending training after breakfast, finding that seeing it while eating a mango is a good way to start the day. Afterward, they start a three-way training session, in which Aang stands in the center and deflects all their attacks. Aang succeeds for 20 minutes, until one of Toph's rocks accidentally knocks Sokka out of the hammock, where he's started on LATD. Toph apologizes in her own way, while Katara notices a gravel rash on Sokka, which proves a good test of Aang's new healing.
Sokka complains about being Aang's guinea pig, and is even less happy when Aang's efforts are less than successful, much to Aang's frustration. Katara tries to get Aang to be patient with himself, only to find that Sokka's patience has run out, and he wants lunch and to be able to read LATD some more (even if Katara believes that the dragon powers and long lost twins are stupid plot devices).
Aang is disappointed over how things turned out. Katara suggests that Aang did it correctly the previous day, but Aang points out that it was actually Katara who healed her own foot. She gives him a poke with the commonsense stick for not telling her, and decides to go about it differently, considering getting him a chi mannequin rather than a live and impatient patient.
Aang, however, has an announcement, and he wants to celebrate the North Wind (leading to a fart joke from Suki) , which requires a week off of training. Aang says that the other winds haven't been celebrated because of the Gaang being on the move or fighting (it seems a little convenient to bring this up now), but now that they're doing nothing, it seems like the best time to do it in the first time in a century. Zuko resents the suggestion that he's doing nothing, but it's also likely that the fact that he knows that Ozai is going to incinerate the Earth Kingdom when Sozin's Comet is coming means he doesn't think much of wasting time; perhaps now would have been a good time to tell the Gaang.
Aang reveals that the North Wind is the migration wind, of transition and turbulence, and the celebration begins tomorrow. The air nomads celebrate with a week of games and activities that develop them as air nomads. Each day has a specific quality to it- logic, patience, bravery, creativity, preparation, cooperation and celebration. Since the Gaang is his family, Aang wants to celebrate it with him.
Zuko is touched (one would think he would say this genuinely, and not as an opening concession), but believes that Aang should be devoting all his waking hours to facing "the fatherlord", because Sozin's Comit is near and Aang is nowhere near ready. Of course, Zuko doesn't say why they need to defeat Ozai before Sozin's Comet arrives, but the Gaang doesn't disclose their plan to wait until after the comet has passed. Of course, Toph and Katara also voice their opposition to wasting a week.
Aang protests, saying that he's being oppressed by the Fire Nation (one would imagine that he would argue that if they let him off for Katara's birthday, it's only fair that they would do the same for his holidays), and Zuko says that he only wants to train Aang.
Finally, Sokka reaches a compromise that the Gaang can agree on- one game per day, factored into Aang's training schedule. Aang, pleased, goes off to set up, and the group decides to go with Aang's week of fun. Suki believes Aang deserves a break, as she wouldn't train her warriors this hard without allowing time for fun. Katara doesn't contest that point, but has to wonder about Air Nomad ideas of fun if Aang enjoyed sliding like he did in Omashu.
Aang is quite pleased, and splits the Gaang into teams; him and Katara, Toph and Sokka and Suki and Zuko- I'll refer to them as Team 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Team 3 is especially unhappy with this arrangement, possibly because neither is paired with their respective boyfriend/girlfriend. Suki proposes going with Sokka instead, and Aang (whether because he's choosing the simplest possible alteration, or preemptively rules out putting himself with anyone but Katara), says a team with two benders would be at an advantage, forgetting that his team has two benders, as well. Of course, it could be argued that both the bender-only teams would be at an advantage of the non-bender team.
Suki proposes an alternative; going with Aang and pairing Katara with Zuko. Aang refuses, saying that there would still be two benders on a team (of the four people, only one of them isn't a bender), but that as the Avatar, he can be relied on to not cheat (Of course, he's also in all likelihood the only one who knows the rules to these games). The original arrangements stand, and Suki is unhappy wiith being on the same team as someone who's as grumpy and not fun as Zuko.
Zuko, while washing dishes with Katara, complains about Suki's description of him, (confirming it in the process), and getting on a team with her rather than Katara. Katara sympathizes, but tells Zuko to "make nice" with Suki if they're going to enjoy this. Zuko doesn't like the idea, and is even less thrilled with the idea of being the "unfun one" of the group.
Katara teases Zuko a little, but also remembers when she was the "unfun one," as shown in "The Runaway." As such, Katara's thankful to Zuko for taking that title away from her, and sympathizes with him, saying that he's fun in his own special way.
The author points out that change is a big theme in this chapter, and points out that Suki's still adjusting to her role in the Gaang. With Sokka around, she's no longer a leader. With Zuko around, she's no longer the only one with her stealth and fighting skills. And with the benders around, she feels Overshadowed by Awesome. The author wants Suki to have her own episode devoted to her experience, much like Sokka did, so Suki can become more than Sokka's girlfriend. I agree it would have been nice, but it's partly due to Suki coming in very late in the show, two episodes before the Grand Finale. She's not trying to be a "bitch" toward Zuko, but is correct about how grumpy he is, and is disappointed in not getting to go with Sokka.
The author paired Suki with Zuko to help them work out their issues, and get them to interact more. There would be some clashes between them, with Zuko jealous of Suki and Sokka's easy relationship, as he'd been raised in an environment where "political expedience" mattered more than love and was present to some degree in his relationship with Mai (the author isn't elaborating yet, but that seems overly dismissive of their relationship, even if Zuko's parents approved of Zuko getting with Mai, a Fire Nation noble, more than with Katara, a commoner and member of an enemy nation). He feels jealous of Sokka and Suki, but also a bit guilty for doing so.
The author mentions that an undisclosed passage from Lu Ten's letter about change is weighing on Zuko's mind, but tells us to wait, describing patience as one of the virtues for the week-long celebration. Zuko needs Lu Ten's dagger because if he ever had one, it got confiscated by the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se.
The author mentions a reviewer, Donnacrunch, who weighed in before, and who said that Aang wouldn't be able to do healing, because only a few select waterbenders can do it. The author points out that waterbending comes naturally to Aang, and she (I'm not entirely sure of this, because the wording is a little awkward), wants Aang to understand that there are some techniques they can master but he can't.
My interpretation of Aang's elemental training is as follows.
- Airbending: He's quite good at it, but it's his natural element, and no one is around to compare with him. It isn't until Legend of Korra that we see rookie airbenders with Tenzin's kids, and Korra herself struggles with airbending throughout the entirety of the first season.
- Waterbending: Aang has quite a few advantages here, starting this first, with a teacher who is most suited to him personally. Of course, said teacher happens to be a relative neophyte herself. Aang never learns bloodbending, although 1)it's implied that only powerful benders like Katara can do it, and only in optimal situations like full moons, (rendering something like this
impossible), and 2)Katara never wanted to learn it and doesn't want to teach anyone else.
- Earthbending: I was, at least initially, under the impression, that Aang had the hardest time because it's opposite his element, as Roku had the most difficulty with waterbending. Of course, he runs into problems, and Toph isn't very sympathetic. Therefore, he' s often shown struggling with earthbending, and clearly can't learn metalbending- as I said, "The Promise" indicates that few can.
- Firebending: Aang technically learns this all the way back in "The Deserter," but after injuring Katara due to his reckless actions, he swears it off until he meets Zuko. Once he does, however, he has a very short amount of time to learn it, both in terms of episodes and in-universe time, until Sozin's Comet arrives. As such, he doesn't quite do as well as he does with waterbending, but his training in firebending, from what I've seen of it, goes more smoothly than his training with earthbending did. Lightningbending also seems to be out of the question, as Aang's teacher Zuko is only up to the point at which he can deflect lighting, rather than use it himself.
So in short, I think that's Aang in a nutshell- he makes a surprising amount of progress in three new elements in a short period of time, (doing better than the author gives him credit for), but never masters the more advanced forms. It's somewhat reasonable to have there be things in each discipline that he can't do, both for the sake of keeping the story balanced, and also to reflect that he, dabbling in each of the other elements, can't be the equal of those who spend their entire lives mastering their native forms of bending, even if he is the Avatar.
The author, however, is less sure about whether only a small portion of waterbenders can heal, since the Northern Water Tribe designates it a women's role in addition to keeping women far away from the battlefield. The author concludes that Aang has the potential to heal, but can't do so yet.
The author admits to making up the Air Nomad festival, and says it's a good thing, to help Aang feel close to and remember his people, which she believes influenced his decision to not kill Ozai in the Grand Finale, much like Katara remembering her mother influenced her anger toward Zuko in "The Southern Raiders".
A word about Aang and his culture. Fanfiction authors tend to suggest that Aang is heavily motivated by his culture, for a variety of reasons. Some of them are understandable; Aang is the Last of His Kind and canonically feels attached to any remnants of his culture.
But others are more problematic. As the title goes, Aang is the last airbender, so naturally, a good way to cause conflict between him and the rest of the group is to have him take a position, based on Air Nomad culture, that the others disagree with. Additionally, one can also make various assumptions about how the culture works, given how little we've seen of it.
Just as there's a thin line between dedication and obsession, there's also a thin line between natural character flaws and things being used to bash characters, so the author should be careful to make sure Aang's portrayal doesn't cross over.
The author assigns various meanings to the winds based on various works of fiction, and points out that the others are reluctant to give Aang the entire week off, but he essentially won by playing the "genocide card." Is it really too much to concede that Aang might have had a point, and won without needing to resort to emotional manipulation?
The author points out that Aang chose Katara because he wants to be with her, but also cares about fairness, even if Aang was excluded because he had an unfair advantage as the Avatar. Of course, when push comes to shove, he rejects Suki's proposal, which would separate him and Katara.
The author thanks Irako of the Desert for directing her to TV Tropes, even though the author is already speaking Tropese, and says while Katara is the "unfun one" of the group, the same could be said of Zuko.
Next time, Aang's week of fun begins, along with "various ramificatitions".
The author also asks for a nickname for Zuko other than Zuzu, considering "snug bug",
What I liked
- Katara's imagination of Iroh trying to give Zuko a dagger.
- Aang not necessarily taking to healing easily, raising a possibility of why they didn't teach it to Aang earlier.
What I didn't like
- Aang being portrayed as lazy yet again.
- Aang's culture was seemingly used to make him into the minority
- The author seems to be assuming that Aang can learn healing.
- Zuko missing an opportunity to tell the Gaang about Ozai's genocidal plans, and by the same token, the Gaang also not telling him about their plans.
